My 10 year old daughter wants her own YouTube channel. Here’s what I told her …

“Mama, I want to be a YouTuber, I need to start my own channel”. She is 10, and impossibly adorable (IMHO).

My first reaction was an immediate and loud: “Oh. Hell. NO”. Well, except sub the H- word for the F-word. And no, I didn’t actually say it out loud.

I was oddly triggered. My reaction was totally outsized for a typical 2026 kid request. Most parents would either say ‘no’, or ‘go for it’, or maybe it would provoke a family debate but not this level of internal panic.

So why the extreme reaction???

Like the tech bros who don’t let their kids have smartphones, as someone who has made a living being on the internet for 16 years, I know too much. I LOVE my job, and yet I want to shield my innocent children from all forms of social media for as long as possible.

Why? Whats so scary?

There are too many anonymous trolls, ready to rip my kids self worth apart (I should know, having been on the receiving end of some pretty mean ‘annonymous’ comments over the years). Not to mention all the comparison issues that come with an online persona; the anxiety, the fear of saying the wrong thing (or the right thing, the wrong way), the lack of privacy, strangers judging you, insecurities about looks, weight, cruel bots, weird men, odd para-social relationships, impossible expectations, tech driven dopamine addictions….

I was clearly projecting.

But that’s what parents do right? Or anyone who cares about someone else. We can’t help but use our personal experiences to try to protect others from anything that might cause pain, despite the obviously positives.

I also just really want my kids to have a typical childhood, with their focus on friendships, school, hobbies, figuring out what lights up their brain, nature, hanging out with me :) Not them counting their likes, views and comments then the emotional roller coaster that is guaranteed to ensue regardless of the number.

Here’s what I basically said: